The ultimate productivity lesson

Saying no and cutting back time commitments are some of the hardest things to do when attempting to be productive.  We get stuck on doing things a certain way and for particular reasons that made sense when we began but may lose their logic as time goes by.

After a year of blogging in support of my book, I will be taking a hiatus while I decide whether to proceed.  Since I've only had three pageviews in the last month, all from Russia, I don't think I'll be missed.  If I am, please let me know in the comments or by email.  Thanks!

happiness at work

We feel more motivated to work if we are happy at our jobs.  Sometimes, however, this can be difficult.  Perhaps the position isn't challenging, maybe we have other issues going on in our lives, or maybe we are just having a rough patch.  Jon Gordon's blog offers us an insightful post on happiness at work that can help us develop the mindset to motivate us to put in our best efforts.

procrastination and academic writing

This week I share another useful column from Inside Higher Ed entitled Write Now!  Tackling the everpresent curse of procrastination, the columnists offer good tips for getting writing done in the face of all the academic distractions we face (teaching, service, life outside of work, etc.)   There are excellent tips for building and sustaining momentum.  Check it out!

Working hard or hardly working?

As we approach the holiday season it can be a little difficult to get motivated.  Luckily Dumb Little Man provides us this week with 6 Ways to Trick Yourself into Working Harder.  Give them a shot, I know I will!

keep your goals to yourself

Lifehacker shares last week a video from the popular TED conference of Derek Sivers discussing how keeping your goals to yourself can help you reach them.  Controversial in some ways, but something I can completely understand.  It can limit you in some ways when you declare you will achieve something, and this speaker explains how in a very relatable way.  He offers other suggestions on how to build motivation around your goals that make sense.  What do you think about sharing your goals?

interesting technique for networking

As a natural introvert, networking in general can be hard for me, but I know it's an important part of the conference experience.  Last week I came across a tip from blogger Sid Savara:  Offer a snack to your fellow conference-goer.  He recommends a banana.  What an interesting idea!  It appeals to the mom in me, and the hungry conventioneer as well.  Although I personally can't stand bananas I think I might have to try this.  What techniques do you have for breaking the ice when out of your comfort zone?

willpower

Part of my book dealt with willpower and self control as a cure for procrastination.  Makes sense, but how do you build willpower?  Is it something you either have or don't?  Most people believe you can increase your willpower with a bit of work, but a new school of thought espouses that we have all got a good amount of willpower and it's just modern life that makes it hard to not be distracted and procrastinate.  The New York Times reports on this line of thinking.  What do you think?

running behind...

After a week out and a family visit last weekend I am running behind.  Luckily I have other blogging librarians to take up the slack.  Please visit the Strange Librarian's 10 tips for finding your groove...  I am needing this advice this week!

On the road again...

I'm helping coordinate the PNLA Leads institute this week so no link to share...I'm feeling the stress of keeping up with everything while away at a fairly intense retreat. I'm not a participant, though, so it's kind of a different headspace. This morning participants are discussing the Enneagram. Anyone use similar tools to learn more about how to get things done?

Creating a barrier between work and home

In our connected society it can be hard to 'turn off' work, to completely leave it behind at the end of the day.  However, time away from work is essential to good productivity.  We need to recharge and refresh, and if your home life is anything like mine you still have lots to take care of besides your job.  Lifehacker offers us tips on Establishing Boundaries Between Work and Play that can help.  For me, having a firm cut-off time every day when I log out of email/work activities helps me meet all my obligations at home and at work.  If I know I have to leave at 4:30 I tend not to waste any time at work, and then when I get home I know I can enjoy time with my family since I've gotten my work done. 

Which tip is the most helpful for you? 

Getting things done while commuting

Continuing the topic from a couple weeks ago where I shared tips on getting work done while traveling, most of us travel some distance to work.  Dumb Little Man offered 7 Productive Things You Can Do While Commuting which helps us use that time better too.  I currently commute by bus with my child and husband and this gives us extra family time, but when I commuted by myself I found it to be a GREAT time to work out problems.  What do you like to do with your commute?

Outsourcing and productivity

Two small parts of my book dealt with outsourcing, but it was primarily addressed as a stressor for library workers and a driver to work smarter.  This article from today's New York Times illustrates that trend.  As some libraries move from a civically-owned model to a private ownership model, this will change how they work and how we are expected to work.  It seems to lead to a deprofessionalization of library services that has many of us concerned.  Check out the article and then check out many of the library blogs today for great discussions.

Working while traveling

In the past few years I've done a lot of travel for work.  For a time I was taking at least one trip a month, which seems like a lot for a librarian!  Aren't we supposed to work in a particular library?  Of course that's not always the case.  We like to confer, meet, and do distributed work.  I also work in distance education support so that's another opportunity to travel.  I've enjoyed it but have suffered from a drop in productivity, especially while actually traveling.  Time Management Ninja offers us Eight ways to get things done on a plane which I will have to adopt.  Unfortunately, flying out of Missoula means no planes with wifi--when will we get that innovation out here??  What a boon!

Starting your week on a high note

Many of us find Mondays challenging--launching back into work from a few days away can be daunting.  Where do you start?  Time Management Ninja has some suggestions on how to start your week ahead of the pack that are helpful.  I usually do a review right before I leave on Friday but I can see how moving it to Monday morning might be even better.  What do you do to prepare/get started on Mondays?

What to do when things aren't working out

It seems like a lot of people I've talked with are a little downheartened lately.  I know I have had some tough times career-wise in the past few months.  US News offers us three things to do when you feel like a failure which are pretty helpful.  Check out the comments on the site for an additional two steps that are quite insightful as well.  And best of luck!

How to work a room

Apologies for the long delay; I took more of a vacation than I intended, which is always a good thing!  I'm feeling rested and productive as we launch into another school year here.

I have some different advice to share with you today.  As a dyed in the wool introvert I often have trouble with work-related social events.  And I have had quite a few in the past year!  Recently I came across an interesting piece from Monster.com on how to work a room with advice from a number of people, including a hypnotist.  Very interesting stuff!  I definitely agree with the idea of arriving early to events to make you feel more at home, but I'm not sure I feel the need to introduce myself to a chair.  The piece is varied in the quality of advice but it provides some good food for thought for any fellow introverts out there. 

Dealing with Decisions

For me, one of the key contributors to procrastination is difficulty making decisions.  Often I end up checking my email for the thousandth time because it's simply easier than deciding what I should be making a priority.  If you have similar problems making decisions this post on Dumb Little Man may help you figure out what your big picture should be (or at least you can waste another few minutes reading it).  Happy Monday!

By the way, I will be taking next Monday off--I will be on vacation with my family.  Now that will be a happy Monday!  See you in two weeks.

Dealing with Distractions

A common problem that most information workers have is dealing with online distractions.  I myself spent 15 minutes reading MetaFilter this morning for no real reason--I just got sucked in by a news story I saw elsewhere.  Lifehacker presents tips on dealing with distractions in an internet world, a vital skill for those of us who work online.

Having no goals

One of the trickier things about productivity is setting goals.  Often I've found myself in a situation where my goal was to simply keep going.  What do you do when you have no particular goals?  The zen habits blog explores the question in this post. 

Reducing your commitments

People often ask me how to be better at saying no...I wish I had more to tell them!  Saying no is hard.  Saying no after you've already said yes is even harder.  The Unclutterer blog has some tips on how to untangle yourself from unwanted commitments.  Check them out!

Shut up and write

Today I'd like to share part two of the Inside Higher Ed's summer writing column, cleverly titled Shut Up and Write.  Although a terse title, the post contains excellent tips on how to boost writing productivity and find support for your writing projects--a must for us academics in the off-season.  I'm going to take its advice and get back to the article I'm working on this month!

The Procrastination Test

Given that it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted (sorry!  ALA took a lot out of me!) I thought I'd offer to you the Procrastination Test from Psychology Today.  Although it's derided by actual psychologists, the magazine has interesting information and practical self help ideas. 

This test won't solve procrastination problems but it can help you explore why you procrastinate, which can help you figure out a way to stop or lessen procrastinating.  There are some helpful hints and suggestions on the second and third page of the article after the test.  And taking the test can also help you put things off a bit longer :-)

Meeting your bodyguard

This summer one of my favorite higher education news sources, Inside Higher Ed, is running a series on summer writing productivity.  Although it's a pretty niche audience, these posts have relevance for anyone seeking to boost productivity.

Today's post, Meet Your Bodyguard, contains many useful tips on starting writing projects, but I think the biggest tip this post offers is that YOU are responsible for your own productivity.  Most people who I meet who are productive know this, and that's what makes the difference.  Those who blame outside forces (my job is too much for me, my family is too demanding) often don't have the sense of responsibility for their time necessary to make the most of it.

Check out the series and think about how you may be standing in the way of your own productivity.

How computers mess up your brain

A large part of my book dealt with multitasking and dealing with the always-connected nature of the workspace, especially for information workers like us.  Last week the New York Times ran a great article called "Your Brain on Computers: Attached to Technology and Paying a Price" that reflects these themes and shows the potential negative impact of an always-on attitude.  Very interesting reading!

Hippos and customer experience

For this week I have a post from the Good Experience blog.  The author, Mark Hurst, wrote Bit Literacy, which I referenced in my book as a system of productivity.  His excellent blog focuses on providing and promoting good customer experiences, something most librarians can get behind.

This particular post discusses how the most highly paid person in the room (the HIPPO) usually has his or her opinion implemented regardless of all other data.  The buy-in of this person on projects is crucial, and this person's view of the organization sets the mood for all actions.  Consider the HIPPO when dealing with issues of customer service, workplace productivity and motivation.

The search world is flat

An article burning up the twittersphere this morning called "The Search World Is Flat," discusses the information search cycle but has some implications for productivity thinking too.  Students were given 50 minutes to write a researched 2 page paper on the use of computers in education, and the overwhelming majority turned to Google or other familiar sites rather than library resources--a familiar tale.  However, the post also discussed the time involved in the research process and the time that can be saved by using library resources and search techniques--things that are near and dear to productive librarians' hearts.  Productivity isn't just about our work, but it can be about our users' work as well.  Food for thought for this month!

The Tao of Productivity

For this week I have some food for thought from the Zen Habits blog.  Leo and his crew always present a new and interesting way to think about productivity and this post on the tao of productivity doesn't disappoint.  Read it and try to frame your work in a new way this week.

Tradition!

This week I read a great post on the Conflict Zen blog, entitled "the cat who meowed during evening meditation".  It's a great parable on why we do the things we do and how we need to rethink what we consider to be the essential way to get things done.  A good thought to start the week!

Tips to jumpstart your productivity

Most of the time we need a bit of a boost into productivity--some way to get started.  Last week, Stepcase Lifehack, one of the best productivity blogs out there, offered up their list of tips. 


One of my favorites is to 'time-box' my tasks, that is, to dedicate a portion of the day to each task on my to do list for the day.  What is your favorite tip from the list?  Do you have any you would add?

A Change of Pace

For a change of pace I took part of Monday off, which meant I forgot to post since I usually do that first thing Monday.  To continue with the change of pace I will point you this week toward a favorite of mine, addressing the issue of productivity with a bit of humor today: Dinosaur Comics.  It's one thing to say you're going to accomplish some goals, but quite another to actually do it...

Avoiding Crisis Management

One of the key themes of my 'productivity for managers' chapter was addressing and avoiding crisis management, by which I mean feeding off of events rather than just doing a consistent and reliable job.  Another term for this is reactionary workflow, and the incomparable Zen Habits blog has a collection of seven tips on fighting reactionary workflow for us to analyze. 

The key thing we need to remember is to manage our communication channels.  Keeping email open all day will lead to reactionary workflows and crisis management.  Trust in our people, and ourselves, to work without constant oversight, reporting, and feedback.  I love the tip to develop "power hours" in which you focus on a task and ignore everything else.  Another excellent point is to not dwell--something I myself have to work on!

What resonates for you with this post regarding your own productivity?

Welcome, part II

I just learned that Ning is going under, so here is the new community in support of my book, Productivity for Librarians, available soon from Chandos.   Unfortunately the forums will no longer be available but they weren't high traffic to begin with.  If I see a need to revive them I'll search for a new home for the community, but time is of the essence with Ning's closing free accounts.

Welcome (or welcome back!).

Saying no

People often ask my advice on how to say no...they must not pay attention to the fact that I need advice there too!

Luckily this past week the blog Wise Bread issued a great post on 12 Straightforward Ways To Say No. I think I will need to print this one out and post it near my computer. There are so many great tips here. Number 6 is one of my personal favorites and was something I championed throughout my book. Take a look at the list and let me know your favorite!

Knowing when to quit

One of the key themes I deal with in my book is how to know when to quit. Quitting projects is vital for productivity--we can't do it all, all the time. Sometimes tasks will need to be pruned. However, this is a challenge for just about everyone. How can we tell what's important to continue? How can we tell where we should put our time and what we should stop doing?

The Drawar design site featured an insightful article last week called Letting Things Die where it tackled those questions. It deals with the psychology of letting things go as well as how to determine what should die. Highly recommended!

Inbox zero

One of the hints that I and many other writers share is to keep your email inbox empty. The point is to file away any information you may need for later and add items to a central to do list, and enjoy the empty inbox. The empty inbox allows you to clear your mind for your actual work on your to do list, and can reduce the email overload that we all face since you aren't tempted to fire off responses to emails in your box.

How do you get to empty? Check out this post from Good Experience to see simple, workable instructions that will get you working.

Back up your data!

Late last week my hard drive died on me and all the contents were completely unrecoverable. In my 15 or so years as a student and employee this has never happened to me. I'm one of the few. Those of you who have already gone through the pain will echo my strong suggestion this week to back up your data. Take the time NOW because you may not have the time later!

When I went to a Mac about three years ago one of the advantages was that the computer came with built in backup software. All I needed was an external hard drive. My employer wasn't willing to provide one so I meant to buy one on my own. They are very affordable so I didn't really begrudge the purchase but it was out of my normal activities. This idea languished for a while and now I am kicking myself for not making the time.

Action items for readers this week:

• Figure out a way to back up your most important data--documents for me are the thing I miss the most. All my annual review paperwork dating back six years, and the paperwork for my employees, will now have to be recreated for the next cycle rather than just updated. Luckily I have hard copies. There are lots of guides online and your systems department can also assist. They would rather restore a hard drive from a backup than listen to us complain about losing data, I can guarantee from my experience.
• Once you figure out how you will do it, ACTUALLY GO THROUGH WITH IT. I had just gotten as a gift a thumb drive with 4 GB of storage two weeks ago, which would have easily held all my documents that I'm currently missing. But I never set it up to back up my data. You can bet it was the first thing I did when I got the refurbished machine back.
• If you are in the position to facilitate backing up your employees' machines, do so. It would have been great if, when I first brought the issue up, my employer sprang for the hard drive. I will now research doing so for my employees and make sure they are backing up their data. I'll try to get some sort of seminar for our faculty here on what we should be doing to preserve our data. I'm certain I'm not the only one not backing up...just the only one who had the worst happen.

The power of (short) meetings

One theme that ran through my book was how much I dislike meetings. In general they are not bad--as long as you are meeting for the right reasons. In my opinion meetings should be action oriented. Meetings just to share information are a waste of time.

I really appreciated reading about the 22 minute meeting this past week, from Scott Berkun's Blog. The illustration from Nicole Steinbok should be framed and put in every meeting room.

National Procrastination Week

National Procrastination Week was last week, and I thought it'd be fitting to wait until this week to post about it!

Lifehacker had an excellent roundup of procrastination tips in honor of the occasion. I recommend also checking out the comments on that post to learn more tips.

Do you have any tips or tricks for dealing with procrastination?

Productivity in academia

Barbara Fister's recent Library Journal column examining productivity in academia brings up questions that I find very interesting. Why is so much of academic productivity measured in publications? She suggests a new way of applying for tenure, via a portfolio of a faculty person's top three artifacts of scholarly work in their field. An interesting idea that could change a pressure-cooker environment focused only on producing the most you can as fast as you can into a more introspective and quality-filled pursuit. Something to think about for those of us in academia!

The advantages of a lunch hour

A big part of my book was insisting that we must take breaks throughout the day to be productive. Good advice in that vein can be found in "Five Ways to Turbo-Charge your Lunch Hour" from the oddly named but very good Dumb Little Man blog. Follow these great tips and you may find that you get more out of your day!

Welcome!

I have just heard that my book, Productivity for Librarians, is going to press next week. It's time to get this online community up and running!

I plan to post weekly about developments, news, and issues in productivity as pertaining to our profession. There are also forums to discuss anything and everything dealing with making your life's work more productive.

Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions, concerns, and anything else